Shut Up and Trust This
by Crankwave
Summary: After the death of her original pilot. An Ion class Titan DW-3850 is schedule to be linked with a new pilot. Fresh out of training. Jay Presley. She doesn't trust him, he doesn't trust her. They soon realize they need to brush off there differences if they are both going to survive.
1. Protocol Three

**/RECORDING AVAILABLE/**

 **/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS/**

 **[Willow]** They've got us pinned.

 _[static]_

 _[static]_

 **[?]** Willow [static] get out now.

 _[static]_

 **[Willow]** I can't..Fuck...DW!

 **[DW-3850]** Core reaction critical - Willow I advise you to eject.

 **[Willow]** We are in this together [static] not leaving you.

 **[DW-3850]** Protocol Three..

 **[Willow]** I don't care what the damn protocol says i'm not going without you

 _[Explosion]_

 **[?]** Willow, Willow!

 _[static]_

 _[static]_

 **/END RECORDING/**

"Damn shame." One of the technicians said, knocking a wrench against the powered down Titan's leg.

"Heard she was getting a new pilot." Another technician replies.

"Already?" The first one raises an eyebrow. Willow had been dead for little over four days, and they were already scheduling for DW to be neural link with another pilot.

"I mean, she's still in perfect condition and we can't have something like her go collect dust just because her pilot is dead." He shrugs.

"Makes since, so do you know who they are?"

"Some new guy, fresh out of training to, Jay, I think."

The first technician whistles, gaze looking up at the chassis of the Ion Class Titan. Frame decked out in a sand camo paint job.

"How is she going to handle this." The second technician's eyes follow the other, looking at the Titan.

"I have a feeling, not that well."


	2. Chapter 2

Jay's green eyes go wide when he enters the hanger, helmet tucked underneath his arm. All the training doesn't prepare you for the feeling you get when you finally set foot into the facility.

"Jay Presley?" A voice calls to him. Whipping his head around to see who called his name.

"I'm Lieutenant Riley, you'll be stationed under me, now come on, I'll show you to your Titan." He jesters a hand for the Soldier to follow him. Jay quickly nods and follows the others lead. The two walked, Riley giving him a what counted as a tour of the facility. Jay can't help but to stare up in wonderment at all the Titans, even if they were in stasis for the time being.

"And here is yours." They stop before an Ion Class Titan, framed decorated in sand colored camo. It wouldn't have been Jay's first choice in color, but he guess he can learn to deal with it.

The Lieutenant presses a hand onto the Titan's leg. "Wake up DW-3850, there is someone here I would like you to meet." and just like that the Ion Titan powers up. A yellow optic comes online and looks down at the two men.

Her eye falls onto Jay before looking back at the the Lieutenant, cocking her head to the side.

"Lieutenant, who is this?" Jay eyes widen a bit, okay, not expecting a female voice to come out of the Mech.

"Well," He gives the Titan a smile. "This is your new pilot, Jay Presley." The soldier gives a shy wave.

"I do not need a new pilot." DW says bluntly and Riley attempts to suppresses the sigh that he desperately wants to give out. Of course she would act like this.

"DW, Are you aware of what happened to Captain Willow Fletcher?"

"Willow Fletcher was killed in action 5 days ago, sir."

"And who was your standing Pilot?"

"Captain Willow."

Jay gives a mortify look at his Lieutenant. "Wait you never told me that this one had a previous pilot."

"Can't having these things collect dust kid, She still in perfect condition."

"All you need to do is establish a neural link and she is all yours." He looks back up at the Titan.

"DW-3850 will you be a dear and open up your chassis please." Something about a man saying this to a Mech makes this feel 50 different kinds of wrong.

"I'm sorry but I have to decline that, Lieutenant Riley." Riley's eye twitches, trying to keep his anger under control. She was not going to make it easy for them, was she.

"And might I ask why?."

"I do not need another Pilot...sir." He finally lets out the sigh - hiss that has been building since the start.

"DW, Captain Willow is Dead, and in her place means that you are given off to whoever is next in line." Wow now that just seems cold.

DW's optic falls onto Jay again, almost looks like she is squinting at him before her chassis opens, revealing the cockpit inside. Leaning down so that the Pilot could easily embark.

"That's what I'm talking about." Riley pushes Jay forward towards the Titan, stumbling, stopping his fall with the edges of the Titan's frame. He takes in a shaky breath to calm the rest of his nerves before stepping into the cockpit and takes his seat before it closes.

DW initializes the neural link, vision going white for a split second, a small pinch at the back of his neck and he realized that his dreams have come true, he finally had his own Titan. Feeling DW's presence at the back of his mind. Even if it was going to take a while for her to warm up to him.

"See, not to hard." Riley says.


	3. Chapter 3

When dinner finally rolled around, Jay was completely exhausted. First day of training with DW was the farthest away from a smooth ride. The pilot swore that DW-3850 was purposefully making it difficult for it to trust her. Being thrown around like some rag-doll in a 20 foot tall war machine was something he was not expecting.

With a tray in hand he took a seat at the table next to Lieutenant Riley and a few others soldiers.

"So how was your first day of being linked?" One of the soldiers asked before eating a forkful of the rations.

"Terrible, I don't think DW like's me all that much." Jay mumbled, picking away at his food.

" No , what gave you that Idea." Riley said, Jay looking up and glaring daggers at him. The older man laughed, clapping a hand on the man's shoulder, causing him to tense up at the action.

"I kid mate, don't sweat it, she'll come around eventually." Riley pulled his hand away and Jay's shoulders relaxed again.

"Hope so, you need to have a decent neural link to be able to keep it together during a fight." Another soldier spoke up.

For the next couple of minutes, the table was silent as they all ate their food. Jay still replaying the training session from earlier over in his head. He just couldn't wrap his head around it, why was DW so against him being her new pilot. I mean, he could understand that her pilot had recently passed, but wouldn't her original pilot want her to keep going?

This whole situation was making his head hurt, a light thudding against his temples. Groaning out in frustration.

He stands up from the table, picking up the now empty tray.

"I'm going to bed." Jay said and Riley simply waved him off. Jay traveled down the corridor til he made it to his room. He types in the keycode, beeping as the door opening with a hydraulic hiss. Closing again when he steps inside.

Jay doesn't bother turning on the lights. He walks over to the bottom bunk and slides underneath the sheets, wrapping them tightly around himself.

The mattress was stiff and the blankets were paper thin. Curling up into the fetal position, facing towards the blank wall.

The Pilot wished he was back home on Aenus. He missed his mom and dad and three brothers. He wants the war to be over so he can just get back home. Knots tie themselves in his gut at the thought of his home. Tightly squeezing his eyes shut when he feels something wet prick at the corners. Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind once again.

 _DW better keep him alive._


	4. Chapter 4

_Eyes shot open to the sound of ear piercing alarms hammering against the side of her skull. Red lights flashing bombarded her vision and it burns her eyes to even look at it._

 _"I can't..Fuck...DW!" Smaller hands fumble with switches from the inside of the cockpit._

 _"Core reaction critical, Willow I advise you to eject." A mechanical voice cuts in through the droning noise._

 _"We are in this together - I'm not leaving you." She shouts back._

 _"Protocol Three.."_

 _"I don't care what the damn protocol says i'm not going without you -"_ Then what feels like a bomb exploding is what jolts awake the Pilot, hands shooting out to collide with the metal wall as he braces onto it for dear life.

Beads of sweat cling to his forehead, his breaths come out quick and uneven and it feels like all of his nerves were replaced with hot coals.'What the hell was that' Jay thinks, the hammering against his chest starting to lessen up, breaths becoming more shallow as he regains controls of it.

The inside paneling looked exactly like..like...DW's?

Wait, Does that mean he just watched...Willow's death like he was the one experiencing it? Did every Pilot getting an old Titan have to go through this? God he hopes not.

The Pilot ignores the tightening around his skull as he gets out of bed. Vision blurring for a split second at the rapid movement. Jay leans his body against the bedpost until the lightheadedness passed.

The shirt clung tightly to his body, completely drenched in his own sweat. The pilot groans and strips the shirt off, throwing it carelessly onto the bunk. Shivering as bare flesh met with the cool air.

Jay moves to the trunk that rested at the head of his bed. Hands unclasping the latches, flipping the hood open. Tucked neatly inside was his armor, a pink and black checkerboard design. Sitting down on the edge of the bed the man sheds off the rest of his sleep wear before slipping into the mesh pilot under-suit.

He starts to clasp the armor on, Legs first, followed by chest, and lastly the arms and shoulders Jay does a double checking to make sure everything was secured before latching the helmet onto one of the hooks on his belt, one that was placed next to the grapple hook and leaves his room.

He decided on skipping breakfast that morning to head straight to the hanger. If the pilot was going to grow a stronger neutral link with the Titan. He wanted to get started as early as possible.

When Jay wandered into the Hanger, Technicians were going to work on a couple of power downed Titans. Welding on arms and other limbs from recent battles or training gone horribly wrong. It makes him cringe at just the thought.

Jay was surprised to see Riley was here already and talking with DW. When he started approaching the duo. The pilot noticed the way Riley was looking at him, watching with some kind of confusion in his eyes.

"What is it?" Jay asked as he finally approach the two, the Lieutenant's eyes still not leaving him.

"Your armor." Riley replied blankly, making Jay look down at his armor. No, nothing was out of the ordinary?

"What about it?

"You actually picked Pink to be your armor color?" Riley commented with a raise of the brow and all the soldier could do was to look at him confused this time.

"It's not pink, It's lightish red." Jay declared.

"My indication says the hex code is #FF69B4, Which in Decimal Code would be rgb(255,105,180) and the HTML / CSS Color Name is...Hot Pink." DW's voice piped into the conversation. A yellow optic watches both pilots.

"You guys are just blind, it's lightish red."

"Whatever, We aren't here to debate colors, we are here to train. Now get in your Titan and meet me at the range. Let's see how well you two can keep it together this time."

Riley walked out of the hanger leaving Jay and DW alone. The space between them filling up with an uncomfortable Pilot clasps his helmet on and looks up to the Titan.

"Can we keep the tossing around to a minimal today, please?" He asked but DW never replied. The pilot letting out a groan, rubbing at his head before he remembered he was wearing a helmet.

"Okay, whatever." He mumbled. DW lowers herself, cockpit opening for Jay to embark. He stepped inside and the hatched closed. The two didn't speak to one another as they walked their way to the training area.

Standing on the other side of the ring was a Titan with a grey base coat, speckles of red, black, and white paint splattered across the entirety of its frame. One thing Jay couldn't figure out was what kind of model it was. Like, there were some components of a Tone but there also parts of what he thought was a Ronin mixed in. What he imagine was be the Lieutenant sitting on top of it.

Riley changed his position so now he was standing on top of the haul of the Titan, hands resting on his hips. "Unfortunately someone used up all of the paint-balls, so instead today we are going to practice hand-to-hand." The Titan moved slightly and Riley shifted the weight on his feet.

"Mota-2144 here will be your opponent. Your goal is to knock us down, no timer, just show us your strength." Jay just scoffs. "Just knock them down, can't be that hard, right DW?" The Titan doesn't respond.

The Tone's cockpit opened and Riley jumped into it gracefully. Jay was impressed on how smooth the action was.

DW was the first to charge, breaking into a full sprint to the other side of the room, bringing up her left arm, hands balled into a fist. Ready to strike. Yet Mota doesn't make a stance to move. Even as the pair rapidly approached, she still didn't show any signs of movement.

Just as the metal hands were about to collide right into the Tone's optic. Mota skated to the side. DW didn't have the momentum to stop herself before the fist made direct contact with the stone wall.

The Tone ducking underneath the arm. Swinging out one of her leg to the back of the Ion's heels, colliding with enough force to have the other Titan lose her footing, topping over and falling straight onto her back with a heavy thud, kicking up dust from the padded floor.

Jay shut his eye as his head bounced against the seat. But when he opened his eyes his gaze was met with the barrel of the Tone's rifle. Panic flooding his body.

"Bang, you're dead." Riley said through the comms. Mota bringing the rifle back to her side.

"Get up, let's go again." Mota returns back to the opposite side of the ring but DW doesn't budge. Jay tries pushing on the leavers, but she still didn't move. Oh god, he hopes Mota didn't damage anything. "DW?" Jay asked quietly, voice hinted with worry.

The Ion Titan suddenly leapt up with no issue, taking the Tone by surprise. Charging into the other Titan, hands grabbing onto Mota's forearms. Pushing with as much force she could muster. Metal creaking as it was pushed to its limits. DW used her thrusters to push the Tone back farther.

Mota tried to knock DW over again with her leg but the Ion countered it with her own, tripping the Tone over, the Titan plummeting to the ground.

It was now Mota who was flat on her back. As Riley was about to congratulate them on their victory. DW's foot hovered over the Titan's chest before bringing it down with a heavy force onto the cockpit. Jay could only watch in horror as he tried to pull the lever to pull DW back.

Curses spilled from his mouth as he tried everything to get DW to stop. The sound of metal crushing against metal made something churn in his stomach.

"Jay! There should be a blue button near the hatchet, press it and that should put DW into an emergency shutdown mode!" The Lieutenant shouted over the comms.

"What ever happened to giant red buttons." Jay cried.

"You really don't want to know, hurry!" Green eyes frantically looked around for the button the Lieutenant was talking about. When he managed to find the bright blue button he slammed his hand on it. There were three mechanical beeps before the system started to shut down. Jay let out a sigh and slumped his head against the chair.

DW finally took her foot off of the other Titan's chest. Taking one step back and knelt down to the floor. Yellow optic flickering a few times as it shut off. The cockpit opened, Jay rolling out and onto the matted floor.

Once on his feet he rushes to Mota who was knelt down, starting to pick herself up off of the floor.

"Jesus Christ are you both okay?" Jay shouted. Mota blinked her lime-green optic once before looking down at the panic-stricken Pilot.

"Both me and Lieutenant Riley are in good condition, my chassis has only sustained minimal damage."

The Tone's cockpit opens, Riley stepped out, ripping off his helmet in a quick motion. Jay gulped down the lump in his throat as the Lieutenant marched towards him. He looked pissed.

"What was that!?"

"I-I don't know, she just started doing that on her own." Riley just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"That will concludes today's training, you are dismissed. Now go wash up and get some food." Jay gives a salute and retreats out of the training room with no further word. Brown eyes look up at the Titan. He shakes his head and sighs once more.

"What are we going to do with you?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Do you know who you are?"

"I'm an Ion-class Titan, DW-3850."

"Do you know who I am?"

"You are Lieutenant Riley, an ex-IMC captain and currently an overseer of the 893rd fleet of the Militia."

"Who is your current standing pilot?"

".."

"DW?"

"Current standing pilot is Jay Presley."

"Care to explain what happened during training earlier today?" The yellow optic is un-moving as it idly stares down at the Lieutenant. Processor running blank.

"DW, are you aware of what happened during today's training session." Riley repeats. The Titan breaking out of it's daze to blink her optic a few times.

"No." Riley still stands with shoulders squared and arms behind his back. Even when there is the nagging feeling of wanting to drop them in defeat. It had been six days since Willow's death and even still DW has been acting strange.

He understands that the bond between a pilot and Titan is something special, the stronger the bond, the harder they are to break. Willow and DW worked together longer than he has been part of the Militia. Riley knows he should be more easy on her.

But it really makes him wonder, maybe something happened during the mission that the recordings weren't showing. The way she was acting seemed off putting.

"Lieutenant?" The Ion asked, the mechanical voice cutting through his train of thought.

"That will be all DW. You can power down now." DW nods and the yellow optic shuts off.

"So what should we do?" A technician asked, almost as he appeared out of nowhere.

"Scan her data core, something just doesn't feel right about this." Riley dismissed himself and lets the technicians do their job. He can only see them pop out her optic core from the corner of his eye as he leaves the hangar bay. Allowing the shoulders to drop as he marches forward, having no destination locations, just far away from the hanger as possible.

 _"Pilot is everything alright?"_ A voice calls over the comms. The Lieutenant unable to help but to smile at the calming voice, taking in a few deep breaths to smooth out the tension rising in his body from the last few days.

"Everything is fine, don't need to get yourself worried." The tone in his voice shifting from authority to friendly in a beat

 _"You are stressed."_ It's more of a statement then a question.

"Of course I'm stressed, I've almost got crushed by a Titan today who seems to be missing gaps in her memory." He knows he must have raised his voice for he can feel eyes stare at him as he continues down the hallway, not paying mind to any of them.

 _"Why not get Captain Jacob to speak with her?"_ He stops in his tracks for a second, thinking it over. It sounded like a good idea, with his personal relations with both the Titan and the recently deceased. But a small fraction of him is telling that it's too soon, that the other still needs his time to grieve.

It has been six days since Willow's death, and even from beyond the grave it feels like everything was revolving around her.

"I'll see about that, and Mota?"

 _"Yes Lieutenant?"_ There were distance sounds of whirring machinery from the other side of the comms. Riley opens his mouth to speaks, but quickly shuts it before certain words come out.

"Never mind." The comms shut off as he preys the helmet off his head once more, clipping it to his belt. Riley runs a gloved hand through short strands of black hair. Apparently his legs did most of the thinking because he finds himself outside the office of the very Captain Mota had brought up.

There's a second of hesitation as he raises his hands to the door, knocking a few times on the metallic door.

"Come in." The voice from the inside calls. The door opened with a hydraulic hiss. Lieutenant Riley stepped into the room, seeing that the Captain looked busy. Hastily jotting down words onto a sheet of paper. There were also stacks of papers sitting neatly on the corner of the desk.

"I'm sorry if I've interrupting you." The other man was about to walk back out of the room, but the other shot his free hand up to stop the other man from finishing his sentence.

"No it's perfectly fine, take a seat Riley." With the free hand he motioned to the chair in front of the oak desk. Riley doesn't say anything as he takes the seat.

"Now what is it that you need Lieutenant." He still hasn't take his eyes off of the paperwork, continuing to write as the Lieutenant spoke up.

'It's about DW-3850." Jacob tensed up as the mention of the Titan. Hand dripping tighter to the pen in his hands, almost as if it was about to snap in half from the pressure, buckling under the weight.

"What about her." Jacob's voice choked on the words. Pen still held in an iron grip.

"After the mission she's been acting strange, and I was wondering if you would talk to her, since with your relationship with Captain Willow."

"Riley I don't -"

" **Fletcher**." Riley hated the way that the name came out of his mouth, it's enough for the other man to break the contact with the paper to look up at the Lieutenant. Able to see the hurt clear in his blue eyes. Riley eases back into the chair to finish. "Please, you need to give her some condolences, after all, your sister was her Pilot."

The Captain is quiet for a bit, thinking it over in his head if he should do what the other was telling him to do. He darts his tongue out to lick at drying lips. "I'll see what I can do, If I can manage to get away from the paperwork for a few hours, I'll talk with her."

"Thank you Jacob and I know I've said this enough already, I'm sorry." He darts his eyes away. Jacob - Fletcher looks back down to the paper in front of him.

"She knew what she was getting into Riley, you don't need to say sorry."

The man stands up from the chair, giving a nod towards Jacob as he heads out the door. Not needing to say anything else, already giving one another a silent agreement.

The Lieutenant gets halfway down the hall before the alarms begin to blare base-wide. He squeezes his eyes tightly, using his attempts to keep down the anger rising. Clasping his helmet back on, making a B-line back to the Hanger once more.

 _Maybe a little shooting might help calm him down._


	6. Chapter 6

Jay swore he was going to throw up. Even smelling the food wafting from the mess hall made his stomach churn. His head was still spinning from what happened earlier. Just what exactly happened today during training?

DW just started moving on her own without any say from the Pilot. Was that even possible while they weren't set in attack mode?

He rubs circles on his temples. Already starting to feel pressure growing behind his eyelids. Thinking that maybe he should go take a shower.

Maybe that will help him with nausea.

Help him understand what exactly he has gotten himself into.

The cool water felt nice as it rolls off of his face and chest. Jay stomach finally decided to settle itself down, no longer feeling the need to throw up all of the contents within it.

Jay rests his head on the cool shower tile, the water beating against his aching back. He thought that the roaring sound of the water would be enough to deaf out the continuous buzzing at the back of his skull. But the noise still managed to peak through.

She had nearly killed Riley. Had it not been for him pressing the emergency shut down button, the other would be dead, squashed like some bug at the bottom of her foot.

The pilot can taste bile at the back of his throat.

He shuts off the water, drying off hastily and slipping into fresh clothes. Maybe he'll go run the gauntlet until his legs are sore and burning and all he can feel is the wall sliding against his fingertips.

Jay makes it a step out of the threshold before he needs to double back - dashing to the ends of the wash barrack. He ducks into a stall and lets the contents of his nearly empty stomach come splitting out into the toilet bowl.

He's coughing and hacking and snot and tears are rolling down his face as he continues to dry heave. Needing to push out any last drop from his stomach out. Sweat clings to his forehead.

Minutes pass and Jay still has a death grip on the side of the toilet bowl, knuckles almost as wite as the porcelain. He says there for a moment longer, finding the strength to push himself up.

He flushes and exits out of the stall. He heads for the sick and washes his hands, splashing water into his face. He just had to throw up right after a shower. Now he feels gross and sticky all over again.

Jay looks into the mirror. His face was a ghostly pale and cheeks reds as beats. His eyes were red from all the excise energy and tears.

The Pilot rubs at his tired face. Letting out a shaky sigh as his hands drop to his side.

Then he nearly has a heart attack when the sirens start blaring.


	7. Chapter 7

While other pilots started to pour in. The briefing began.

The planet was called Vetov, located in the Lambda Miriandynus sector of the Centauri Star System. There were rumors that an IMC facility had started construction. It didn't seem too large, perhaps big enough to house off-shore supplies.

If the tip was right and they were able to uphold the mission. Destroying the facility. It might be enough to stumble back the IMC for a short amount of time. Giving the Militia a little heads up.

Briggs decided it was a good idea to set up Riley and his team to carry out this mission. Meaning that Jay would be accompanying them.

After the briefing, Riley sought out Briggs to talk to her about the mission. He found her talking with Barker. The woman noticed the lieutenant approaching, waving off the other man.

"What you need Riley?" She spoke.

"I believe Presley is unsuitable for this mission ma'am."

"And why's that?"

"His link with DW-3850 is far too weak," He starts. "They have been unable to keep things together over the last several training sessions."

"Well, lucky for you, we only need two Titan's on this mission," Briggs replies.

"And who will those be?"

"Sai-8711 and Mota-2144," Briggs said, and Riley wonders if he should hold his tongue. Wonders if he should pull her into the loop of what was happening.

"I don't think Mota will be suitable for this upcoming mission either." He doesn't have time to stop himself before the words come out. Briggs raising an eyebrow. "And might I ask why?"

You opened this can of worms Riley, you gotta deal with what you've unleashed.

"There was uh, an accident during this mornings training. causing significant damage to her arms and cockpit." And Briggs looks stumped for a moment, bringing a finger to rest under her lip in thought.

"I can see if I can bump her up to the top of the repair list, and she should be fine by then." Riley gives her a nod. He hopes that they'll be enough time before then to smooth out all the damages.

"Go round up your boys, We suit up at 0300 hours."


End file.
